Setback

I am beginning to learn my limitations. I am having trouble with Week 2 of the Couch to 5K program. Here is what I have done so far:

Wed., 2/24 – W1D1 (Week1, Day 1), did okay. Walked 4.0 Km/hr, ran 6.0 Km/hr. 2.0 Km/30 min. total.

Fri., 2/26 – W1D2, did okay. Walked 3.2 Km/hr, ran 6.2 Km/hr. 2.0 Km/30 min. total.

Sun., 2/28 – W1D3, did great. Outside, so don’t know speed, but did over 2.6 Km/30 min. total. Kept walking and did 5K total in 55 min.

Tues., 3/2 – Sick with sinus infection.

Wed., 3/3 – Went to the Dr., still sick, did W2D1 anyway, one day behind schedule. Walked 4.5 Km/hr, ran 6.5 Km/hr. Had to hold on to the front of the treadmill twice. ‘Speed walked’ the last two running intervals instead of running. Felt awful afterward. My head was full of pressure and I had a raging headache. Not sure if it was caused by the sinus infection or maybe my blood pressure was up? Will exercise raise your blood pressure? I know some of the decongestants that I am taking may raise it.

Fri., 3/5 – Got up super early so I can get back on my schedule. Still one day behind. I figure if I am supposed to have a rest day between sets and I am behind a day, I can do W2D2 early Friday morning and W2D3 late Saturday evening and be back on schedule. Started out great – walked 4.5 Km/hr, ran 6.7 Km/hr (this is actually more comfortable than the 6.5, which seems too slow. Also, the faster pace won’t allow me to ‘speed walk.’), and I made it almost all the way through. Halfway through the next-to-last running interval, I had to stop. I felt like I was going to throw up. I walked the rest of the half hour, still got 2.1 Km in. I was shaky for a little while afterward.

I don’t know if it is because I am just so out of shape, or if it is the sinus infection and medicine that is causing me the trouble. I am hoping it is the latter, but since that’s pretty much only affecting my head & sinuses, I think it may just be that I need more time. Also, I think I sped up my walking interval too fast. I’m not getting my breathing as controlled as I would like it between running sets.

I am still going to do W2D3 tomorrow (Sat.) evening. That will get me back on my schedule. It should be lovely weather outside, and I seem to do better outside than on the treadmill. If it is as easy as W1D3 then I will go on to Week 3 next week. I will probably slow my walking portion down to 4.0 Km/hr. to make sure I can catch my breath between running intervals. If I have trouble, I guess I will have to stay on Week 2 until I can do it. I will be a little disappointed, but I’ll get over it. It might actually be good for me to have a setback, because I have been afraid that I would ‘fall off the bandwagon’ but I don’t think I will.

If I am able to stay on track, there is a local 5K run that happens on my last day of the Couch to 5K program. If I don’t stay on track, there’s another race Memorial Day. That’s still over a month before my main goal of running a 5K by the end of June, so it will be okay.

What’s funny is right now, I feel great! I am excited about running outside tomorrow. I hope I am over the sinus crud so I can enjoy it.